Ladies and gentlemen, Peter MacKay (the sexy one!)

Ever since Defence Minister Peter MacKay married Nazanin Afshin-Jam in January, the human rights activist has been fighting to maintain an identity separate from “Peter MacKay’s wife.”

“I have a name you know,” she said in a July Facebook post aimed at the P.E.I. Guardian newspaper, in which she expressed her anger that a reporter had focused on her support for Omar Khadr’s transfer as the wife of a minister, rather than on her new book.

Conservative MP Jeff Watson turned the tables at an announcement in Windsor on Thursday, when he introduced MacKay to the 30 men and women in the audience, many of them in full naval uniform.

“I have the great privilege of introducing all of you to the husband of former Miss World Canada and human rights activist Nazanin Afshin-Jam,” he said.

This got a good laugh, including from MacKay. But Watson wasn’t done.

“He’s been voted the Hill Times’ sexiest MP, also, twice in the last 13 years.”

Watson then went on to highlight MacKay’s experience as an MP, as Foreign Affairs Minister and as Defence Minister.

A bemused MacKay took the stage to applause, saying “Thank you very much for that unique introduction.”

In return, MacKay had a $36 million gift for the city: a new building for the HMCS Hunter Naval Reserve, with construction set to begin in the spring. The project will mean up to 85 jobs in a city with an employment rate hovering around 10 per cent.

Then MacKay showed off his own sense of humour. Taking the opportunity to remind the audience about the War of 1812 bicentennial, he began describing the battle at York, and how the Americans razed the city “in a very savage way.”

“Rumor has it that they were looking for the Toronto Stanley Cup,” he said. “But as I remind some of my colleagues in the States, if they were looking for the Stanley Cup, they would not find it in Toronto.”